Happy Friday! I’m on the road in Montgomery County, MD this week working with a dynamic school full of incredible educators! We’ve been busy mapping the math curriculum and creating Tabor Rotation planning guides, but I didn’t want to miss Math Game Friday, so…
“If it’s not fun you’re doing it wrong.” …
“I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison
When I read this quote I think of how driven Edison was by “what if” and “I wonder” type questions. Great minds have always asked questions of the world around them.
Asking questions is a natural mode of learning and growing, at the basis of human and social coordinates.…
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” -Jesse Owens
“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” -Abigail Van Buren
“What do I do with the rest of the class when I’m working with my differentiated, readiness groups on Thursday and Friday?…
“Strong teachers insist that effective teaching is neither mysterious or magical.” -S. Farr
What is it that makes a teacher strong, vital, and exceptional? What is it that separates the good teachers from the master teachers? Farr and his colleagues found certain patterns in the teachers they observed:
*Tended to set big goals for their students.…
“The largest group of students in most schools consists of adolescents whose test scores hover between the upper and lower extremes. Without the academic labels that focus special attention on the most advanced and disabled students, average students–the so-called “woodwork children” who tend to fade into the background–get whatever is left over in many schools.”…
“What we call differentiated is not a recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy. It is not what a teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is a philosophy.”
-Carol Ann Tomlinson
Does this “square up” with your beliefs?…
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” …
